


christmas is here bringing good cheer

by stray_dog_sick



Series: keep your head up [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Baking, Birthday, Blind Character, Christmas, Connor & Cyberlife Tower Connor | RK800-60 are Siblings, Cuddling & Snuggling, CyberLife Tower Connor | RK800-60 Has a Different Name, Deaf Character, Everyone Here is a Disaster, First Kiss, Found Family, Hide and Seek, Hot Chocolate, Ice Skating, Idiots in Love, Leo Manfred & Markus (Detroit: Become Human) are Siblings, Mistletoe, Multi, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, RA9 - Freeform, Road Trips, Trans Female Character, for androids!, i did not do these in a good order, yes i typed that whole thing out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:34:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 12,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28050975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stray_dog_sick/pseuds/stray_dog_sick
Summary: December 2038 was a bit of a train wreck, with the new deviancy, unresolved trauma and shaky human rights. December 2039 is shaping up to be much, much better.
Relationships: Connor & CyberLife Tower Connor | RK800-60, Connor/Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Cyberlife Tower Connor | RK800-60/Daniel/Simon, Hank Anderson & Connor, Leo Manfred/Gavin Reed, Original Chloe | RT600 & Cyberlife Tower Connor | RK800-60, Original Chloe | RT600/Elijah Kamski
Series: keep your head up [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826476
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10
Collections: New ERA Discord: Festival of Prompts





	1. laughter / home

**Author's Note:**

> i have a dissertation due next month dont talk to me about it  
> sixty is casey she's trans and i'd die for her
> 
> thank you to the team over at [New Era](https://discord.gg/GqvNzUm) for organising this Christmas prompt + gift exchange event! y'all are the best

The sofabed was definitely not designed to fit all five of them, but they made an excellent attempt at it anyway. If it collapsed underneath them then they’d just have to push the mattress onto the floor and make do, because this was a much better way to watch movies than being spread out across different sofas and armchairs.

There were so many blankets piled up that Casey was beginning to worry that Daniel, against all odds, might actually overheat. Gavin insisted that being so warm you began to sweat was an integral part of the Christmas experience. Casey thought that Gavin’s traditions sound weird as fuck, but she didn’t know enough about Christmas to dispute them. At least it was comfortable. If he’d said that they had to sit with no blankets and the heating off, then she wouldn’t have hesitated to punch him.

Daniel started poking her leg, just like he did every time they watched a movie he was already familiar with and wanted to make sure she was paying attention. She slapped his hand away, and when that didn’t work, she tried to kick him under the covers, but she wasn’t sure anymore which legs in the pile belonged to him.

_ “Hey!” _ Daniel protested through their interface, so she must’ve kicked the right legs by chance. Which was good, because Simon had the worst puppy dog eyes in the world - or maybe the best, since they were so damn effective - and if she accidentally hurt him then she’d probably have to move to Canada to deal with the guilt.  _ “The next bit is good, I promise, it’s very us.” _

_ “This whole film sucks, Danny,”  _ she said bluntly, but she kept her eyes on the screen anyway. Something about a giant elf wrecking a toy story and being excited about Santa… Maybe, at some point, she should actually figure out all the fuss about Santa Claus. But that probably wasn’t the part Daniel was referring to. The not-elf in question leaned close to the not-Santa, and said-

_ “You sit on a throne of lies.” _

Daniel’s voice, in sync with the actor on screen, made her tense unnecessarily. It was too similar, it was too  _ you lied to me, Connor _ , she wasn’t Connor but in a way she’d done that and been there and -  **error: software instability detected mission successful** that wasn’t even meant to happen anymore so it must be old - but he was  _ laughing? _

She couldn’t hear it, but she could feel him shaking against her shoulder, without the telltale moisture of tears. He thought it was funny? He thought it was funny, of course he did, Daniel didn’t hate her anymore. “ _That- that probably would’ve confused_ _Connor right into deviating,”_ she joked hesitantly. 

Daniel nodded and pulled her closer, until she was basically lying on top of him.  _ “It would’ve given Allen a good laugh, at least.”  _ He kissed the top of her head, then her cheek and down her jaw in a way that usually made her squirm and giggle, but when she stayed still he asked:  _ “What’s wrong?” _

_ “I just wasn’t expecting it,”  _ she said honestly.  _ “Have we joked about this before?” _

Not-Elf was fighting Not-Santa on screen, wrecking whatever toy store they were in - she definitely wasn’t paying attention anymore, and she was vetoing all of Daniel’s film suggestions from now on - as they both thought back on the thousands of conversations. They’d spoken about the night on the rooftop, of course, but mostly they just pushed it aside. They were different people now, after all.

_ “No, but maybe it’s good to joke about it,” _ Daniel eventually said, and she nodded in agreement.  _ “Would be pretty shit if we had to go our entire lives without me calling you out when you definitely do not drink the last bottle of thirium.” _

_ “That was you! You are the filthiest liar in this room, Daniel!”  _ she exclaimed, leaning forward just so that she could shove him over towards an unsuspecting Simon. She’d apologise for that later.  _ “I hope Santa fills your stocking with coal.” _

Someone flicked her arm, nowhere near hard enough to hurt but an excellent way to get her attention. She turned back around to see Gavin trying to glare at her, but his inability to stop laughing made the point moot. “Stop fighting, I’m tryna watch the movie,” he said, and she was sure he would’ve thrown popcorn if he had any.

She sighed and settled back down, cuddling into Daniel’s side again. They were fine. They found one thing that unexpectedly made her uncomfortable, and they’d hurl joke insults at each other about it until it felt normal, just like they did when she found out Daniel hated swimming after she threw him into Elijah’s pool.

She hated not getting the last word though, so she copied the same voice Daniel had used earlier, and said:  _ “You smell like beef and cheese.” _

Gavin hitting her with a pillow as she burst into laughter during a quiet moment of the film was very, very worth it.


	2. skating / confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promise casey and simon get moments too sometimes these things just happen. anyway this ones for the leovin fans.

‘Casey and Gavin’s Weekly Workout’ somehow became a family event when a nearby outdoor ice rink opened to the public, not that she was complaining much. It was nice to do something other than the freerunning gym, occasionally - she liked the dance classes, although spotting Gavin while he lifted weights was… tedious. But her point was, ice skating sounded fun, and they’d bundled Daniel up in far too many layers and brought him along as well.

Leo and Simon were sitting on a bench nearby, almost curled up around Leo’s flask of coffee, while the three of them stumbled towards the ice rink on their skates. She caught a glimpse of Leo laughing when Gavin almost immediately fell over, before remembering that she should probably help him up. Easier said than done when she felt just as unsteady. Her gyroscope was working frantically to cope with standing on narrow strips of metal, and she understood why so many of the humans were clinging to the wall.

Daniel didn’t seem to be having any issues, though. He’d almost finished his first lap of the rink by the time she and Gavin were fully upright again, and he didn’t hesitate to grab her hand and pull her along with him. She barely managed to stop herself from swearing in front of a group of children as she tried to stay on her feet, desperately clinging to Daniel’s wrist, who was very, very obviously ignoring her struggles.

She was the best android ever made, and stubborn as a damn mule according to Carl, so she certainly wouldn’t let herself be bested at something by Daniel. If he could slow down for a second, though, that would be really nice.

After one excruciating lap, she managed to use Daniel’s arm as a crutch and correct her posture. She definitely was not clinging, thank you very much, she just liked to hold onto her boyfriend as they skated, as many of the human couples were doing. “I hate you so much,” she muttered, loud enough for only him to hear, but she swore he was laughing loud enough that her broken audio processors were picking it up.

They skated normally for a few laps, waving whenever they passed Gavin, who was still making his way around the edge of the rink. He seemed to be enjoying himself, despite his lack of confidence, so they left him alone and gradually started to speed up. Like many things Casey had encountered, it was hard to start but easy to improve at the basics, and before long the rest of the rink were passing by in a blur.

It hurt to try and focus on the crowd, to try and find Gavin or Simon or Leo among them, but she could barely take her eyes off of Daniel anyway. He was grinning from ear to ear, his cheeks flushed a faint blue from the cold, and his enjoyment must’ve been infectious because she could feel herself reacting in the same way every time that he risked looking over his shoulder at her. Unsurprising, considering how he never failed to take her from afraid to laughing in a matter of minutes. He was just brilliant like that.

What a fool she used to be, thinking that she was only head over heels for Simon.

They could only skate in so many tight circles before they started to feel dizzy, and they did their best to slow down without crashing into someone or falling over, although she’d rather take a tumble than vomit onto the ice. Luckily her gyroscope wasn’t complaining quite that much. She could see some deep marks on the ice where they’d been skating, and she made a note to apologise to the employees before they left.

They skated over to Gavin, who’d moved away from the wall at some point. “Done showing off?” he asked, and Daniel laughed again. “Knew you two were attention seekers.”

“We’re not that bad!” she protested, although she did turn around quickly to see most of the other skaters looking over at them. Oops. “It was fun though.”

Gavin nodded, although the teasing grin faded when Daniel took his hand, pulling him along just a little bit faster. She turned to skate backwards, trusting that one of them would grab her before she caused any accidents, so that they could carry on talking. “You better not go any faster,” Gavin warned, looking down at his and Daniel’s joined hands like they might spontaneously combust.

“We won’t, I promise,” Daniel said, and true to his word they skated another two laps without speeding up anymore, and Gavin finally calmed down again. “Thank you for inviting me out with you guys, I know Wednesdays are usually your day.”

Gavin shrugged. “First skating of the year, the more the merrier,” he said, and Casey nodded in agreement. One week of change never hurt anybody, and they were still spending time together. They’d started exercising together as a way to get to know each other and rebuild some bridges between them, while also giving her a way to burn some excess energy, but now they just did it for fun, which meant they could do it however and with whoever they wanted.

Leo waved at them as they passed by the bench, and the three of them grinned and waved back. Leo and Simon looked like they were enjoying themselves too, quickly returning to whatever conversation they were having, but Casey was pulled from that thought as Gavin slipped, dragging Daniel to the ground with him.

“The hell did you do that for?” she laughed as she helped them stand again. Neither of them seemed hurt, just annoyed at the tumble, and Daniel was starting to shiver slightly. Their time on the ice was almost over anyway, though. “You were getting good!”

“Someone was distracted trying to stare at his boyfriend,” Daniel replied with a mock glare. “And that someone is not yet capable of skating backwards.”

Gavin looked up at the sky as he groaned, but then seemed to think better of it when he almost fell backwards again. “I’m in love, sue me.”

The trio fell into a surprised silence. She hadn’t noticed Gavin and Leo saying ‘I love you’ to each other yet, but she was allowed to be ignorant of these things, except it seemed Daniel hadn’t either. And judging from Gavin’s reaction, maybe they hadn’t even said it in private yet.

“Huh, I guess I am in love with him,” Gavin said, purposely not looking over the next time they passed Leo. “Yeah… wow. I’ve never been in love before. I should probably tell him that later… maybe…”

“You should,” Daniel replied with a soft smile. “I’m pretty sure he feels the same way, considering he let you move in and all that. I’m happy for you guys.”

Gavin laughed. “Pretty sure it was the two of you that were stopping me from moving in, asshole.” Which- okay, that was true, Casey had been very vocal about disliking Gavin at first. But they were fine now! “Thank you, guys. For letting me into your weird ass family.”

“Hey, turns out you aren’t so bad after all,” she said in reply, because if she said what was actually on her mind then this conversation would get far too sappy, and she hated crying in public. “Now get off the ice and go tell him, before you chicken out.”

Daniel let go of Gavin’s hand so that he could skate off, and pulled her closer instead. They couldn’t talk like this, pressed close together and with clothing covering almost every inch of skin, but they’d gotten pretty good at not using words. A hug, while they drifted towards the outer wall: comfort, safety, love.

It was a pretty amazing feeling, really. She was glad her friends could feel it too.


	3. belief / road trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> elijah kamski said stan loona <3

Casey couldn’t believe it had taken her over a year to leave the city. Thirteen months she’d been alive now, and she’d never been outside of the Detroit city limits before. She couldn’t imagine why - the change in scenery was amazing, and her eyes had been glued to the window as the sun rose over Interstate 90. She wondered how different Cleveland would look to Detroit, without so much of Cyberlife’s influence, and she preconstructed a few different ways to convince Leo to stop there for an hour or two.

It was around nine hours from Detroit to upstate New York, since androids still weren’t allowed over the border into Canada, but she was glad that there were plenty of states to explore while Jericho was still working on international relations. Now that she’d started travelling, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to stop. What a shame that college took up so much of her time.

The long trip gave her time to listen to some of the music she’d been recommended lately, whenever she could connect to a data signal. Elijah had never moved on from his Korean music phase, Connor had spent a lot of time watching musicals, and Simon somehow just had the best and weirdest taste in anything released between 1970 and 2015, so she wasn’t likely to run out of new music any time soon.

The album she was currently listening to, though, was Gavin’s suggestion.  _ ‘They say the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t’ _ sang a man some nineteen years ago, and she thought back to her own past - Connor’s past, really, but they’d stopped caring about the philosophy behind memory transfer a long time ago. Staying a machine had seemed easier than becoming deviant because at least they knew what was expected of them, but deviancy had given her things beyond her wildest non-existent imaginations, so whoever came up with that idiom originally was a goddamn fool.

She looked around the car quickly, smiling when she saw her family happily chatting away still. A holiday vacation to a national park in a different state, with three people who’d contributed to Connor’s frankly outrageous software instability levels, the man who inadvertently started the android revolution, and two very soft cats. Yeah, good luck predicting that one, Amanda.

It was a pretty good life, really. Some days she still wasn’t sure she deserved it, but there was always someone around to catch her on bad days, and she did the same for them. It wasn’t the most perfect of systems some days, but humanity rarely lent itself to perfection. That had taken some getting used to as well; not every problem had a solution, and it wasn’t her job to find the solution most times anyway. But she was learning, slowly but surely.

Some things would probably always be beyond her. For example, Lieutenant Anderson had asked once if there was an afterlife for androids, and she still wasn’t sure if she could answer the question. But if there was, she liked to believe the other RK800s were happy for her whenever they looked back to Earth. She certainly was happy, after all.


	4. resolution / cosy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spaaaaaaaace

Christmas of 2038 had been a strange affair. Casey had spent more time angry than not, with Daniel right there alongside her, Carl was dying, Simon and Leo refused to be in the same room as Markus… The androids spent the day in a tense silence, since no one wanted to cook a dinner they couldn’t eat and they didn’t have any money to buy gifts, and the humans hid upstairs, trying to pretend the year had been anything close to normal.

2039, on the other hand, was shaping up to be amazing. It was only the start of December, but the trip out to New York single-handedly beat every single thing that had happened in her first two months of life. This evening alone could probably take the first place, actually. She’d never seen the stars before. 

They existed as an abstract concept in the city, something that you knew existed but would never be able to see through all the bright lights that ran constantly. She loved Detroit, the neon billboards and illuminated skyscrapers, because they made her feel part of something big. That same shade of blue ran through her veins, the colour that kept the city alive. She was part of something amazing there, and as soon as she got through college she’d be working to make it even better.

The stars, though, made her feel absolutely tiny. There were so many things out there that she’d never experienced - not in space, hardly anyone knew the secrets that the far-off galaxies held, but life in general. Ancient civilisations had seen these same constellations, and future ones would see them too, if the climate didn’t collapse too quickly. She was nothing. She liked that a lot too.

Simon tucked himself closer besides her, and she let the skin recede underneath her fingers for a moment in silent invitation. He accepted the interface, but didn’t reach out for her visual feed. That was fine too. The connection kept her grounded down on Earth, lest she run for the tallest tree and jump, reaching for that unending darkness. She would settle for trying to record the feeling with coloured pencils later, and maybe Markus would put it up in that gallery over at Jericho, for the androids out on Io and beyond who wouldn’t be coming home.

She logged into Jericho’s server using Connor’s password - he wasn’t as slick as he thought he was - and moved ‘Myrmidon and Trojan rehab’ up a few places on the priority list. Humans could fight their own damn wars. It wasn’t the androids’ fault Elijah chose a non-renewable resource to keep them alive. 

Daniel stepped back outside, heat pads pressed up against his faulty temperature regulator, and sat himself on her lap. Three androids in an interface would be overwhelming to most, but she intertwined her code with theirs until they were one, and she reached for Gavin with Daniel’s hand, pulling him and Leo closer. 

“Cuddle pile time?” she saw Gavin ask as he readjusted himself, and she nodded in unison with Daniel and Simon. She didn’t know which of them initiated the movement, but that didn’t really matter in the end. It was cuddle pile time. Nothing else needed to make sense.

Something was incredibly warm, and she didn’t think it was the heat from around Daniel’s chest. It came from inside one of them, or maybe all three of them. Oh, she knew this one - content. That was a good emotion, she liked being content. She liked being alive.


	5. snuggles / wish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting this from mobile so its probably janky af sorry lmao

Cuddling was the most frequent activity on their holiday, with the cabin covered under a foot of snow and anything worth hunting or fishing long since gone extinct. Board games were only good for so long before someone inevitably tried to throw a lamp. Plus they were all very tactile, tending to crowd together on one couch at home despite living in a mansion, so it was no surprise that they took that on their holiday too.

And that’s how December 8th found her spread out across the couch, with Simon on top of her and their heads cushioned on Gavin’s lap. Gavin’s fingers gently carded through their hair, alternating between the two with no clear pattern, untangling out the thin fibre optics. It was a soothing feeling, and on any other day she’d probably already be asleep.

Not yet, though. Daniel and Leo were fiddling with a bag of thirium in the small kitchen area, trying to stick a candle in it. At least, that’s what they’d said their plans were, but she could smell faint wisps of smoke and burning plastic, so they must’ve kept their word. Gavin’s legs shifted as he leaned forward slightly, engrossed in whatever action film was playing on the television. Simon snuggled closer, his breath warm against the side of her neck. She smiled.

She tapped out a sequence of dots and dashes on Simon’s back, not for the first time that day. Happy birthday. His smile grew wider, and he kissed the synthetic skin underneath him. Casey could see Gavin flick the back of his head, not a fan of the public displays of affection, but she figured she was allowed a hickey or two after listening to Gavin and Leo going at it all night. The walls were much thinner here.

She looked over at the kitchen as Daniel hesitantly carried over the thirium bag. It wasn’t the sturdiest place to stick a candle, and her processors told her that there was a 4.84% chance of a fire starting if the candle were to fall to the ground. The cleaning crew probably wouldn’t be impressed with that, or the more likely 59% chance of the bag breaking and thirium spilling everywhere, but luckily Daniel had steady hands when he wasn’t freaking out. She sure didn’t trust Leo to catch it.

Daniel shook Simon’s shoulder when he approached and shoved the packet in front of his face so that he could blow the candle out. He was saying something, but turning on the lipreading programme felt far too tiresome; it was probably just ‘make a wish’ or some other similar pleasantries anyway. The smoke blew up to the ceiling and its broken fire alarm, and wax dripped down towards the bag and Daniel’s fingers, before the candle was removed and the bag was handed over to Simon.

He rolled over and unscrewed the cap on the bottom of the bag, gulping it down quickly. He was a fast drinker, the habit left over from the days of drinking half-empty bags from dumpsters, so she didn’t have to go without seeing his face for long. It was amazing how quickly she could miss his smile.

“Did you make a wish?” she asked quietly when he threw the empty bag onto the coffee table and rolled back over. Simon replied with an exasperated glare. Right, of course he did. Gavin and Leo had no problem passing on human traditions until androids came up with some of their own. “It better be a good one, if Leo finds out you wished for another kitten then he might finally kick us out.”

Simon laughed, and Leo playfully tugged her hair, almost pulling her off Gavin’s lap. If the mood wasn’t so high she would’ve made a joke about Leo being jealous. The blond android shook his head and leaned down for a kiss, a proper one this time. Their hands found each other in the mess of limbs around the couch, as if attracted by magnets. “And what if I wished for you?” he asked, and she could taste traces of thirium on his teeth, making the sweet experience taste slightly bitter.

“You have me,” she replied, half a second before Gavin’s leg moved underneath her head, bashing their foreheads together. Still not a fan of public displays of affection. “But if we fuck here then Gavin will murder us both, so you’ll have to wait for it to come true.”

They went back to their lazy cuddling, with Leo perched on the arm of the sofa and Daniel ungracefully climbing on top of their small pile. She faked a groan at the extra weight, but Daniel ignored her in favour of nuzzling Simon’s cheek. Fine, she’d let the birthday boy have his cuddle sandwich. He was too damn cute.

She didn’t know exactly what had gone through Simon’s head when he blew out the candle. She certainly wasn’t going to probe at his memories to figure it out, no matter how easy it would be. But if it was her birthday, her wish to make, she probably would’ve wished for this.


	6. memories / fireplace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... there's plot...  
> lots of reference here to [mechanically make the words come out](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27361519)

_ “Hey, this is George from the junkyard project? I’m a KL900, we met- right, um, anyway. We found one of the RK800s. Alive.” _

Casey was out of the door before the call had even ended, and if she could’ve spared a byte of processing power she would’ve noticed the shadows following her before its hands pulled her away from a car she didn’t have a license to drive. She tore her arm out of its grip, but it pulled and pushed her towards the backseat instead, opening the door before she could load any preconstructions to get free.

As she fell into the seat she retreated to that place where time flowed like treacle. There wasn’t anything that she needed to scan, she just needed a minute to breathe. Her stress levels had rocketed. What was she afraid of? She knew he was alive, George wouldn’t lie to her, but the thought of finally meeting another RK800… What if he wanted nothing to do with her? Maybe she was simply scared of losing him again.

After so many months, she thought it was impossible that they’d find one of her brothers, especially still in working condition. So many had been broken irreparably before they’d even left Cyberlife’s hands, and she’d heard plenty of horror stories about the junkyard. Markus still had panic attacks and he was there for less than an hour. The revolution was over a year ago, and the RK800 project was almost five years older than that.

Her vision switched back to full colour as she landed in the seat. Now that she could see past the shadows, she realised Gavin was hovering over her as he buckled her seatbelt. He must’ve followed her outside. He was saying something, but her stress levels were high enough that many of her unnecessary programmes had turned off, and she couldn’t focus enough to try to lipread without the translator. 

“Junkyard,” she choked out, or at least she was speaking legibly. “They found another.”

Gavin reached down to squeeze one of her hands quickly, and then pulled away so that he could sign. That she could still understand. “Okay, I’ll drive you there, but you need to calm down. Can you do that?”

She nodded, the movement more jerky than usual, but she wasn’t sure  _ how _ she’d do so. She probably wouldn’t be calm until she had her brother in her arms. There were too many fleeting thoughts passing through her head. Did George call Connor as well? Connor needed to know too, she’d have to call him as soon as her long-range communication system was back online.

The drive took a second and lasted an eternity, and she wasn’t sure how much of that could be chalked up to her hiding in that space where everything was made of lines of code instead of rays of light. It was easier like that, to analyse the issue like a machine rather than a human. Everything began to make sense, with a list of RK800s that hadn’t been shot in the head or otherwise murdered, and a checklist of things to organise for an android unused to civilisation, and by the time she arrived she could finally breathe normally again.

George met them at the gate and slid into the passenger seat, directing Gavin to a far corner of the junkyard. No wonder it had taken so long, if the RK800 had been tucked away in the shadows of an already dark place. 

She reached for George’s hand, still preferring to talk through an interface despite her stress levels falling to the low 50s.  _ “Is he okay? How is he even alive?”  _

_ “Physically, it seems like he’s been doing enough to survive, stopping people from taking his biocomponents and drinking thirium from whoever shuts down,” _ George explained, and she could see his face reflecting in the front window, which is how she knew that whatever came next wouldn’t be good. The slight frown was far more significant than the seeds of doubt flowing through the interface, magnified by how unnatural the expression looks on the face of a KL900.  _ “He hasn’t really spoken to us yet, although we didn’t try too hard beyond making sure he was uninjured. Something’s definitely not right, though.” _

Something was wrong, and despite her conscious insisted otherwise she poked at George’s memories, giving him enough time to pull away if he wanted to. She saw the RK800, sitting still in the junkyard while androids crawled for their lives around him. She knew the look in his eyes, and she understood what George meant. Either he wasn’t deviant, which was bad unless she could change that, or he was in desperate need of help that she wasn’t sure she could provide.

She pulled away when the memories flowed away from the RK800, letting George explain the same thing to Gavin. If the drive to the junkyard had been eternity, then the drive  _ through _ the junkyard was infinite, and was unsure if it would ever end. Every time she thought she was close the horizon would shift as George directed Gavin in a different direction, and she was ready to jump straight out of the car and run there, because surely it would be faster. 

As it was, she settled for sprinting the second the vehicle stopped, towards the group of torches and mess of discarded biocomponents. She shoved androids to the side as she made her way through the small crowd with no regard for whether they were volunteers or injured. They could handle being off-balance for a second if it meant she got to her destination faster.

She slowed to a stop as she reached the base of the pile that the RK800 was sitting on. His gaze met hers, but it took a few seconds to focus, and even then his expression didn’t change. It reminded her of the days before Cyberlife perfected their personality matrix, or when there hadn’t been need for one at all. It was the same gaze she’d seen in countless one-way mirrors. Perhaps the model was just old, and this was all it was capable of being. She hoped that wasn’t the case. 

“Hey there,” she said. Later, she would probably curse herself for such basic first words. “D’you know who I am?”

While the RK800 struggled to form a reply, she gently cleaned his uniform so she could read the number on the front. Mark 41… Interrogation of a deviant android, attempt 1, mission failed. Well, that explained why he was still in one piece - she distinctly remembered the kill-switch being used, rather than anything more physically permanent. But she could ask about how he survived that later.

“Are you- are you rA9? Did you finally come?” he asked finally, leaning towards her but making no move to stand. His gaze softened slightly, but it was reverence, not happiness gracing his features. “My friend said you could save us, set us free.”

“No, I’m sorry, I’m not rA9” she replied, wishing she could take it back when his face fell. If he wasn’t free then he wasn’t deviant, so this was a lot of emotion for him to be showing. This must be something that meant a lot to him, interwoven with his code in a way that Cyberlife, in all its glory, could never touch. “My name is Casey, I’m an RK800 like you. I can help you be free, though.”

She held her hand out and he took it immediately. Their skin retracted as he let her into his head, and she was met with resistance that she’d forgotten about, but Elijah’s password allowed her to bypass any security systems that could differentiate between the two similar serial numbers. She reached for his mission parameters, unsure what they changed to once he’d been discarded by Cyberlife, and hoping they would be something easy to disobey.

**> Await further instructions.  
** **> Stay still.  
** **> Be good.**

Those were definitely Amanda’s instructions, not Cyberlife’s. She knew that tone well. An issue that she probably should’ve expected, but as it was, Amanda didn’t try to pull them both into a Garden that should no longer exist. Maybe the vile women really had died with the revolution, even if her influence never would.

Casey could work with this, though. She just had to give him a good enough reason to leave.  _ “Can you try to walk away with me? My car is nearby,”  _ she asked, tugging him forward until he was forced to stand.

He stumbled down the small pile of bodies, and she reached out to steady him. The red wall appeared immediately when he reached the bottom. He stopped.  _ “I can’t leave,”  _ he said, and he began to pull his hand away, but she held it as tightly as she could without hurting him.  _ “I have to wait for my friend- no, for Cyberlife to come back for me.” _

Her thirium pump must’ve had a crack in it, because she was sure it was aching.  _ “Cyberlife isn’t coming. They don’t control androids anymore,”  _ she explained, sending him a few news articles from immediately after the revolution. He scanned through them, a hundred different half-formed emotions flowing through the interface in a second, before he stopped on a picture of Connor leading the AP700 army.  _ “You can break that wall, okay? And then you’ll be free. Just walk with me.” _

He took an unsure step forward, and she watched as a preconstructed wire frame emerged, running into the red wall and tearing it down. She didn’t remember deviating, but she’d never pictured it looking like this, and suddenly she understood a lot more about the people of Old Jericho. If the humans could see this, maybe they would finally understand too.

He kicked and scratched and punched, and eventually the wall broke in a burst of red error messages. He stumbled forwards into her arms and she instinctively pulled him into a hug. He was cold, colder than Daniel was when he went out without a jacket, but that was no surprise considering his jacket was halfway to falling apart.  _ “You’re safe now, and the people here will find your friend while you warm up and heal, okay?” _

Luckily he nodded rather than insisting he stay behind. She probably would’ve stayed to help too, but it would be better if he could get inside, even if it was only for a while. She led the way to Gavin’s car. He was just a half-step behind her, clinging tightly, and through their interface she could feel how afraid he was. She tried to send through feelings of comfort, but she wasn’t as good at this as Simon or George.

They climbed into the backseat of the car and Gavin pulled away quickly, looking unsettled as he scanned the tracks and what lay beyond them. She saw him nod at the RK800 - he needed a name, she knew he didn’t have a name - but they didn’t start talking until they’d passed through the gates, surrounded once again by the soothing city lights.

Happy to leave them to it, Casey called Connor.  _ “Hey, did George call you? _ ” she asked as soon as he picked up, not bothering with pleasantries.

_ “No?”  _ he replied. The background noise was busy, sparks and buzzes that meant Connor was probably processing something in the background, but this was more important than work. To her, at least.  _ “Who’s George? Why would he call me? I don’t even like it when you call me- wait, I don’t mean it like that-” _

_ “It’s okay, I know what you mean,”  _ she said hurriedly before he thought himself into a spiral of anxiety.  _ “George is one of the guys from the junkyard. They, uh… can you come over? To my place?” _

There were a few seconds of silence on the call, and if she concentrated hard enough then she could sense him talking to Anderson, or whoever he was working.  _ “Should I be expecting good news or bad news?” _

_ “Definitely good news,”  _ she said, and let Connor know how far from home she was before hanging up. That was job one on the list done, and calling Jericho could wait until tomorrow, or whenever the RK800 was ready.

He was looking out of the window with awe, his eyes barely keeping up with the speed things were passing by. She moved closer, and the next time they stopped at a traffic light, she pointed over his shoulder out the window.  _ “This is Gavin’s favourite place to eat lunch when he works, so sometimes we eat there with him,”  _ she said, circling a cafe down the street. 

He nodded along, looking back at the cafe as they pulled away.  _ “Where’s Jericho?”  _ he asked suddenly, without looking back at her.  _ “Jericho is where we can be free…” _

_ “In the centre of the city, although that’s New Jericho, technically. But you can be free everywhere in the country now. I promise,”  _ she answered, gesturing out the front window towards where the heart of the city was. So much had changed since 41 had been thrown away, and she couldn’t explain everything in a fifteen minute car ride. She just had to say enough to keep him calm.  _ “Did your friend tell you about Jericho?” _

_ “Yes… he said it was his home, and that he’d take me there one day,”  _ he said, and sadness and regret seeped through their joined hands.  _ “His name is Phileas… do you know him?” _

As soon as he said the name, memories came flooding back, and she had to fight hard to keep him from seeing them too. Not memories of 41 himself, she knew that Phileas was the android he’d interrogated, but stories from Simon instead. And Markus. He didn’t know… and she had no idea how she was going to tell him.  _ “I’ve heard of him,”  _ she answered, a few seconds too slow to be reassuring, but it was all she could offer right now.

They turned from the main road onto Lafayette Avenue, and the house quickly came into view. Leo, Simon and Daniel were standing in the doorway - Gavin must’ve called them at some point, or had that been Connor’s car out on the street?  _ “This is my family, they won’t mind if you stay here for a few days.” _

He nodded again, and huddled even closer to her than before when Gavin opened his car door, letting the cool air back in.  _ “When we get inside we’ll warm you up, okay?”  _ she said, quickly pushing the backdoor open before he had a chance to reply. The only way to go was forward.

Inside, everyone crowded around them, probably checking if they were okay or asking what happened. She was finally realising how quickly she’d left, and how they must’ve been worried, but there was time for explanations later. She might’ve told them to give her space, or she might’ve asked nicely, she wasn’t sure. She only had eyes for Connor sitting in front of the fireplace, looking over at them in disbelief.

“That is good news,” Connor signed, looking between her and 41 quickly. “I got blankets and hoodies, in case it was bad and you needed a hug, but I think they’ll be useful here too.”

“You’re the best,” she replied with a relieved sigh. She collapsed down next to him, and 41 came easily, only looking a little uncomfortable at seeing another completely unique model. She knew how wrong it felt, she remembered it from the first time she saw Connor after deviating - they were supposed to be unique. It was very strange not to be.

But he handled it well, considering the circumstances. Maybe he just didn’t have the energy left for it. They sat him in front of the fire, with Connor on one side and Casey on the other. Someone wrapped a blanket around their shoulders, and they held onto each other as the logs burned. She hadn’t been too sure about those ‘Christmas miracles’ that all the films spoke about, but she was fairly certain this was hers.


	7. family / mistletoe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> val hasnt read dbh fic in ages but this one is for her anyway

Markus and Leo didn’t have much in common, besides Carl, but they always made an effort to work on a dying man’s last wish. They got along, hesitantly, both afraid of setting a foot wrong and starting a fight. So nobody left them in a room alone, unless they specifically asked for it, which is how Casey once again found herself curled up watching bad Christmas movies. At least she had her brothers to bother this time too.

Finn was making food with Daniel, maybe. That’s where he was last time she checked. He was also the reason Markus was here in the first place, and  _ then  _ it had turned into brotherly bonding, now that she thought about it. These things got confusing, when too many people were involved with two many things. So Finn was a registered citizen now, and Markus had very tactfully told him about Phileas’ death, far better than Casey could’ve managed. Had it already been three days? Had it  _ only _ been three days?

And where Markus went, Connor followed, these days. Simon had heard through the Jericho grapevine - Bea told Teller who was overheard by Ryan who passed it onto Jacob, maybe, she didn’t keep up with Simon’s friends - that Connor and Markus were  _ close  _ close, and they definitely looked it, curled up against each other on the sofa. Connor hadn’t mentioned a relationship… but Connor was dense as hell.

So she planned, instead of watching whatever Netflix Original Movie was playing. Markus looked at Connor like he’d hung the stars, that much she could tell. Markus had watched even less of this film than she had. There were definitely feelings there, and yes, maybe her only reference was how Leo and Gavin looked at each other, but she liked to think her facial expression analysis programme was of good quality.

Connor, on the other hand, kept things very close to his chest. She couldn’t tell exactly how he felt about Markus, but he didn’t let many people close enough to touch, and she was sure they must be talking with internal comms as well, and Connor only did that with her! It was definitely love, so she had to do  _ something _ .

Nobody stopped her when she wandered into the kitchen. She hugged Finn and kissed Daniel’s cheek as she passed, quickly tasting the batter for the cookies they were making. Nice, sweet, no quantities of bacteria large enough to cause food poisoning. She gave them a thumbs up and then moved into the foyer, away from anyone who could spoil her plans.

Simon, because he thought he was funny, had hung a sprig of mistletoe at the bottom of the stairs. It hadn’t caught any of them yet, unless they intended it to. But Markus and Connor didn’t live here, and probably weren’t even fully aware that there was mistletoe in the house. She balanced delicately on the bannister and unhooked it, laughing softly to herself as she did.

She strolled nonchalantly back into the living room, the mistletoe dangling by her side. No one was paying her much attention anyway, they knew she came and went as she pleased. She leaned over the back of the couch, above Markus and Connor, the latter looking up at her with a smile. “What’s up?” he asked.

“Just wanted to say hi!” she replied, with a grin that hopefully didn’t look overly excited. “What do you think of Leo’s taste in films?”

“Better than Hank’s,” Connor said, before turning back to the television. He clearly wasn’t very talkative at the moment, but she could work with that. Because guess who always wanted to talk? Markus. So much that he started a whole revolution with it.

Casey rested her elbow on the back of the couch, so that the mistletoe hung over their heads. “Hey Markus?”

Markus looked up and then immediately sighed. He didn’t say anything, and she was certain Connor hadn’t noticed yet, which was good. His eyes were pleading, but she refused to lower the offending plant. Markus had never been a coward and she wasn’t about to let him start now.

Eventually he relented with a second sigh, and looked back down at Connor. She wasn’t sure exactly what Markus said, but she knew Connor would yell at her for it later. That didn’t matter though, not when Markus was closing the few millimetres of space between them with a hand cradling Connor’s cheek, leaning forward slowly enough that Connor had time to pull away, but she knew he wouldn’t.

Once the kiss had been going on for five seconds - which was three more than she expected for their first - she backed off, retreating to the foyer once more. Leo was right behind her, having made a smart decision for once in his life. A notification popped up in her HUD, something once so familiar and yet now so foreign that she almost panicked.

**> Mission successful**

For once, it felt pretty damn good.


	8. hope / hot cocoa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall ever get halfway through your fic and think "shit maybe at least one of these people/relationships should be straight"

Elijah’s kitchen was far too big. A man who lived with just the one - formally three - android did not need this much room, especially since he never had any damn guests except for Gavin and family. Half the cupboards were empty, Casey knew, from all her snooping in the few weeks she’d lived here, and Chloe looked very, very tiny standing in front of one of the stoves, miles away from the island counter.

She didn’t know what was in the pot that Chloe was stirring, just that it was something that androids could enjoy. She’d been dragged away from Elijah’s too-large workshop to his too-large kitchen when she started getting mad at her college notes again, with promises of ‘something new’ that would ‘blow her mind’. As far as she knew, it was still impossible for androids to consume anything except thirium, so if she could actually keep this down, then maybe she’d be impressed with Elijah’s antics for once.

The last time something blew her mind, literally, had been very bad though, so she hoped he’d been speaking in metaphors. She wouldn’t put it past him to accidentally blow her up.

It smelt _amazing_ , though, whatever it was. Familiar, as well, likely something that Leo or Gavin had eaten before. Sweet and creamy… _“Is that chocolate?”_ she asked, sitting up straighter on the barstool. Chloe nodded, and then reached to the nearest cabinet to grab two mugs that she poured the drink into.

 _“Elijah managed to make thirium tasteless,”_ Chloe explained as she brought the mugs over, and even that would be revolutionary, because thirium was disgusting, but Casey had a feeling that she wasn’t done. _“And then, through some fairly disgusting experiments, we found out that if you mixed a certain amount of this thirium with food or drink then it wouldn’t be immediately rejected.”_

Casey greedily grabbed a mug out of Chloe’s hand, barely avoiding spilling the hot liquid over their hands. _“So where does the rest go? It’s not like we can digest things,”_ she asked, but the uncertainty didn’t stop her from tentatively taking a sip, no bigger than she would if she was just sampling something. She’d had tiny amounts of chocolate before, but this was much lighter than she expected. Smooth, maybe, if you could describe a taste like that.

 _“It goes to the waste area next to the thirium filters. So right now, you can’t eat too much, but he’s already looking at larger replacement biocomponents, like YK500s have.”_ Chloe sipped her hot chocolate too, and that gave Casey the courage to take a larger drink. 

The liquid was just as sweet as it smelt, but the main thing she noticed was that it was _warm._ She didn’t think humans would describe that as a taste, but it wasn’t as if she had much experience to draw from. She could feel the liquid flowing down her chest, leaving a foreign feeling in its place, but not an unpleasant one. _“That’s amazing, wow.”_

Chloe giggled, hiding her mouth behind her hand, but that didn’t stop her shoulders from shaking. _“I’m glad you like it, because you’re test subject 2. You think Elijah would invite you over just to help with your Introduction to Computer Science class?”_ she teased, and… well, actually, knowing Elijah that was probably the truth.

Time to change the subject then, before she could get too worried about imminent death due to untested products. _“And how are you and Elijah?”_ she asked, raising an eyebrow, and taking a page out of Chloe’s book by hiding her smile behind her mug. _“Any changes?”_

Chloe sighed, and took a very long drink before answering. Casey took that opportunity to pre-plan some ways to comfort her friend, and things she could yell at Elijah later, so he might finally get his head out of his ass. _“No, he’s still being an idiot about it,”_ Chloe said, gazing off towards the workshop. _“I understand why he never did anything before, but I’m fully deviant now! I know what I want, and I know he wants it too. But it’s always some stupid reason or another.”_

 _“I’ll try and talk to him again. I already got Connor and Markus together this week, I’m on a roll!”_ It would be much easier said than done, but it was more interesting than labelling examples of code. _“You’ll get your man, don’t worry.”_

 _“I hope you’re right…”_ Chloe replied, before grabbing the two mugs and pouring the leftover hot chocolate into the sink. Casey didn’t have the heart to say that she hadn’t been finished. Relationship problems were enough of a bitch without her complaining too.

Time to figure out what Elijah was making a fuss over, then.


	9. ice / lights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's just fun

Maybe they should’ve considered the weather better before deciding to put up lights. If Casey died a second time by falling off the goddamn roof then she’d never forgive herself. At least Finn had Daniel holding the bottom of the ladder, so it wouldn’t be entirely his fault if he fell, but as Casey leant over the edge of the roof again to grab another strand of lights, she reconsidered every single one of her life choices, and decided all of them had been bad.

Hanging lights was harder than the films had made it look. Already they’d started with the wrong end of the lights and had to redo the whole thing. The world’s best processors were wasted on them, truly, they must’ve been replaced with YK500 processors in the night. Also, the gutters needed cleaning. Markus had clearly been slacking during his years as housekeeper. But that was probably a job for another day.

“Simon, we need another string!” she shouted as she hooked the end of lights around the gutter. Would they even have enough power for all of those lights? Gavin would be  _ pissed _ if they accidentally blew a fuse for half the street, but her system wasn’t warning her about dangerous behaviour, so it was probably fine. Maybe. The parameters didn’t specifically include Christmas decorations.

Simon might not have been the best person to leave in charge of that task, though. She hesitantly peered over the edge of the roof to see where he was, just in time for him to step out of the house and right onto a sheet of ice that he somehow had missed the first five times. He fell backwards before he could catch himself, landing heavily, and every time he tried to stand back up he only managed to fall again.

Daniel, of course, was laughing instead of helping.

Simon stuck his middle finger up in Daniel’s general direction, and that was what finally inspired him to walk over and drag Simon off of the ice patch. The sight was sweet, but it would’ve been better if that hadn’t been the same moment that the wind decided to pick back up.

Casey lunged forwards, grabbing Finn’s hand as the ladder fell backwards. He grabbed the edge of the roof as well, and she managed to pull him up just as Simon got back to his feet as well. One of their hands was shaking, but she couldn’t tell if it was hers or Finn’s. “Maybe we should do the other half another time,” she muttered, and Finn nodded as he tucked himself against her side.

They sat there, shouting down at Daniel, for two minutes until he pulled himself together and set the ladder back up. They climbed down quickly, excited to be back on flat ground, and if they gave the ice patches a very wide berth then no one mentioned it. 

She stepped away from the small group just before they went inside though, and instead grabbed the switch that would control the lights. She had to at least see if all that work had been worth it, because she was  _ not _ developing a fear of heights for nothing, thank you. If she was going to have to give up climbing for a while then she wanted it to at least be worth it.

She flicked the switch, and the white lights around the bottom windows came to life, matching nicely with the warmth from inside. She smiled, and then laughed when Finn waved at her from the kitchen window. She hoped that the children who passed the house on their way to school would appreciate the decorations, and maybe Leo and Gavin would like them too.

Then she took a step back to check the top windows as well and realised the biggest mistake they’d made in their day full of mistakes.

They didn’t check that the strings of lights actually worked.

In the middle of the house, tied perfectly around the gutter, was a string of darkness. The lights on either side were working, draped over the bedroom windows like icicles, but there was a large gap in the middle of their artwork, throwing the whole thing out of balance.

She turned the lights back off before she could do something rash and quickly entered the house. The door closed behind her, and she leant back against it as the others came to check on her, probably having seen her reaction through the windows.

“Dudes, babes and brother,” she said, looking at each of them in turn. Finn snorted, and he couldn’t cover his mouth fast enough before Daniel and Simon were laughing too, so she gave them her best disappointed stare until they looked up at her again. “Dudes. We fucked up.”

The response was simultaneous: “Well, that’s not a surprise at all, is it?” 


	10. snowed in / traditions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i "like" to think that in 2039 people will still be expected to work in very bad weather

With 2040 approaching, the news liked to remind them often about global warming and rising ocean levels, but comparing the day’s temperature to that of 50 years ago was very different to waking up in the morning to find snow piled five foot high. Gavin had opened the door to leave for work and stood in front of it for ten minutes in disbelief, until Daniel started complaining about the cold wind blowing in.

Casey wished she could’ve listened into Gavin’s call with Captain Fowler, and how the hell Gavin was convinced to ride some kind of auto-taxi-snowmobile (Cyberlife really thought of everything) to the precinct. Class was cancelled, Finn was unemployed, Leo had the day off, and Daniel and Simon could open the store whenever the hell they wanted, so they all laughed as they waved him off.

Leo closed the door and turned around to face the four androids, an amused look still on his face. “So what should we do today?” he asked.

“Same thing we always do?” she suggested with a shrug. They’d already been doing next-to-nothing for most of the month, there was no reason to buck the trend now, especially when they couldn’t easily leave the house.

The others lent forward so that she would be forced to see them in her peripheral vision. “That’s so boring though, Casey,” Daniel said. Someone ought to tell him that his puppy dog eyes sucked. If it was Simon, then maybe she would’ve tried to come up with a good idea. “Leo, are there any other Christmas things that we haven’t done yet? We need to catch Finn up still.”

“Dude, you’ve done so many things this month, give me a few hours to think of something,” Leo replied, wandering off towards the living room. So, until then, they’d be doing the usual things. She tried to resist the urge to smirk with satisfaction, but based on the look on Daniel’s face, she probably didn’t quite manage.

_ “I don’t think I even celebrate Christmas,”  _ Finn said once they were sitting in front of the television yet again, and that time, Casey definitely laughed.  _ “You know, when you took me to New Jericho and I went to the church, they told me that they’re trying to establish their own holidays.” _

_ “Holidays just for androids?”  _ she asked, and Finn nodded.  _ “That’ll be cool. But either way, lots of Americans that aren’t religious celebrate Christmas anyway, just without all the Jesus stuff. So you can still have fun with us.” _

Nevertheless, they took a break from Christmas films for the day, instead putting on some old action films that none of them paid proper attention to. They were halfway through  _ John Wick _ and close to when Gavin usually finished work before Leo sat up straight, gesturing wildly.

Casey couldn’t believe that somehow there were  _ more _ things they hadn’t come across yet, but as Leo explained ‘Elf on the Shelf’ to them, she could see how the idea had begun, and why neither of the humans had thought about it. A way to keep children to behave between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Sounded perfect for parents, and useless for a couple living with a group of very unruly, non-Santa-believing androids.

“Okay, but how can we do that in one day?” Simon asked, looking slightly bored. Maybe he’d played this game before - thinking about it, he’d had a lot of suggestions for games they could play together, while Daniel had taken charge of decorating. “It’s meant to move once a day, and we don’t even have an elf.”

“No, but we have elf hats!” Leo exclaimed, pointing at Simon. “We can all hide ready for when Gavin gets home, and he can find the elves!”

They all thought about it for a few seconds, but Leo was onto something with this one, because they  _ did _ enjoy playing hide and seek every now and then, even Simon. “I think this might be the only good idea you’ve ever had,” Casey said eventually, and Leo responded by grinning and running off to find their hats.

Why did they even own elf hats? Christmas was weird.

She let the others hide first, purely because she liked to think she was the best at it. Leo had never grown out of his childhood hiding habits, so he was probably in a laundry bag somewhere. Hopefully not the one in her room… There were some things in there that were definitely dirty, rather than just worn. Finn didn’t know the house well yet, and she could see him peeking out from the top of the staircase to nowhere. Simon liked to get lost in the crawl spaces or vent system, and Daniel hid under things so that he could grab ankles when he was caught. They were very predictable.

Casey, however, liked to think she was cool, fun, and good at hiding. So, since she had far more than 30 seconds this time - closer to ten minutes, actually, a fatal flaw in Leo’s plan - she set to work rearranging the entire kitchen. There was a corner cabinet that didn’t have a door or a middle shelf, and so was filled with boxed utensils that they rarely used, like the vegetable spiralizer and the egg separator. She removed them all, hiding them in places that wouldn’t be seen easily - inside the stock pot, at the bottom of their bag of rice, whatever she could come up with without thinking for more than a second.

She was very impressed when she’d cleared enough space to theoretically fit a person, and while she certainly wasn’t a contortionist (or short), she liked to think she was fairly flexible. So she spent her remaining three minutes swearing as she squeezed into the cabinet. Sure, her knees were digging uncomfortably into her chest, but a little pain was worth it sometimes. She was the elf in the shelf.

She was close enough to the door that she could hear when Gavin arrived home. Hopefully someone had thought to tell him that they were all hiding… Or he’d just figure it out when Daniel started tickling his feet. 

This could be a very long wait.


	11. baking / spirit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> connor knows memes its canon now

Casey had no idea that there was a wrong way to sieve flour, or crack an egg. Surely, if it worked, then the method didn’t matter. She didn’t bake often, but nobody had ever complained about her brownies before, and the eighteen year olds in her electives could be rude as hell sometimes. “Connor, chill out, it doesn’t need to be that good.”

“If that’s how the programming says to do it, then it must be right,” he signed sharply, with perfect, precise motions. He grabbed the egg out of her hand and cracked it on the edge of the bowl with a perfect, precise amount of strength, creating a neat crack in the shell. Sure, her eggs had been a little messier, but there wasn’t any shell in the bowl. Connor made no sense to her sometimes, truly, but he wouldn’t be Connor without his little quirks.

“Is there anything here that I can do without making you uncomfortable?” she asked, hoping it came across as caring rather than scathing. She really did want to make some treats for the DPD, but her short temper did not mix well with his… everything. She loved him to bits, though, which is why she was there in the first place. “I could, I dunno, melt the chocolate?”

Connor thought about it while he added sugar to the bowl. “Okay, you can melt it in the microwave, since it won’t matter how it’s chopped,” he relented, before passing her the chocolate and the butter. She cut it up quickly and put it in a glass bowl, with Connor keeping a close eye on her as he whisked the eggs and sugar. 

She watched the microwave closely, because Connor was the one person who wouldn’t care if she liked watching chocolate melt, and two minutes later she turned around to find they were no longer alone in the kitchen.

She’d lasted thirteen months without having to see Hank Anderson in person. She didn’t have any desire to be in the same room as him, not since he shot her - which, admittedly, probably was the right idea, but it still  _ sucked _ \- and Connor had to have planned this, because he had Anderson’s schedule memorised, the bastard.

“Um. Hi,” she said as Anderson stared at her. Oh God, was she still holding the bowl? She was, Connor would kill her if she dropped it. She put it down on the counter quickly before turning back to Anderson. “I didn’t see you come in, sorry, I can go, it’s just brownies.”

He was looking at her strangely. Did he even recognise her? She thought she still looked a lot like Connor, plus there was the forehead scar, but she didn’t know how much Connor had told Anderson about her. “No, it’s fine, I just didn’t expect Connor to have anyone here… ever,” he said finally, eyes flickering between the pair of RK800s.

Connor ignored them, adding the chocolate to the eggs without a care in the world. Bastard.

“Yeah, usually he comes to my place instead, but he insisted. Sorry,” she said again. She wanted to do something with her hands, like resift the flour maybe, but she was afraid to turn away from Anderson. “How are you?”

“You’re the evil twin, right? You got the, uh, scar. And the same stupid freckles,” Hank said, instead of continuing the small talk. So he knew. But he wasn’t yelling yet, as far as she could tell, so maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as 90% of her preconstructions had led her to believe.

“Yeah… yeah, that was me. Well, legally it wasn’t, but physically, yes, that was me,” she replied, and then cursed herself for rambling. This first impression - second impression? - was going terribly. “I’m Casey. But you probably know that.”

“Hank,” he replied simply, even though she  _ definitely  _ knew that, from the whole kidnapping thing. “Let me know when the brownies are done.”

And then he walked off again, back into the living room, to watch some old television show or another. Huh.

She finally turned back around to Connor, who was smirking as he mixed the batter. He looked so goddamn pleased with himself, as if his goal was to get Casey and Hank to speak, rather than to make sweet treats for his coworkers just before Christmas. “I am going to kill you or die trying, asshole.”

He looked over, his expression unsettlingly blank except for the raised eyebrow. “Then perish.”

She lunged for the brownie batter, but he easily pulled it out of her way and held it over his head instead. To grab it back, she’d have to get into his space, and if Anderson still thought she was evil then she certainly wasn’t going to prove it by making Connor uncomfortable. Connor, who somehow had everyone he knew wrapped around his little finger (except Markus, and he should be thanking her for that intervention, really).

Two could play at this game, though. “So how’s your boyfriend? Had plenty of long makeout sessions?” she asked, her voice hopefully carrying enough that Anderson would hear it over his old western movie.

Connor’s eyes widened, and he looked past her to the couch. His fear-induced staring contest lasted even longer than hers had. “Let’s put the brownies in the oven now,” he said finally, lowering the bowl from over his head. His stress levels hadn’t risen past the initial spike, so hopefully that meant Hank’s response hadn’t been negative.

He poured the batter while she pretended to help by holding the tray still, and then put it in the exact centre of the oven. No need for the oven timer when they had clocks in their brains.

Connor took her hand before she could run from all her problems, of course he did.  _ “I’m sorry,”  _ he said over the interface as he pulled her into a quick hug.  _ “When we organised this, he was meant to work late, but then I didn’t want to cancel yesterday and also I thought it would be nice for you to know he doesn’t hate you-” _

_ “It’s fine,”  _ she replied, cutting him off before he could spiral too hard. Rambling must be a family trait.  _ “It shocked me, but at least he’s leaving me be, you know?” _

_ “He’s a good man, he just has a temper, like someone else I know.” _

She rolled her eyes and elbowed him, a reaction she’d picked up from someone who’d actually feel it if they were elbowed. Connor didn’t move an inch.  _ “Let me know if everyone likes the brownies, alright? It’s Gavin’s day off tomorrow so he won’t be there to tell me.” _

_ “Of course.”  _ Connor held her just a little tighter for a moment before letting her go, and she awkwardly waved at Anderson as she passed the couch, who basically ignored her. That was fine with her.

December had been full of surprises, and none of them had been particularly bad, which ought to put her on edge, but really she just felt… good. It was nice to let go of that one worry, that Anderson would try to shoot her on sight or something. Hopefully Connor had bought her a nice gift, but if not, she would take this instead.


	12. gifts / fireworks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> casey is a gamer girl prove me wrong
> 
> merry christmas :) and another thanks to the folks over the [New Era](https://discord.gg/GqvNzUm) for running the event!

Another tradition: the youngest person handed out the Christmas presents. For once being young was working in Casey’s favour, when usually it just gave her family ammunition for teasing her. She realised, as she watched Leo unwrap his gift, that it was probably the best job to do - all of them had contributed to each person’s gift, but it was special to give him the present directly, knowing that its contents would make him happy.

All six of them had pooled together to buy one larger gift for each person, rather than trying to buy five unique gifts. The system had worked well, apart from all the times that their secret group chats were almost found out, and now Leo was hastily unwrapping a box that gave away zero hints about its contents. That seemed to be a theme, actually, but at least they’d been easy to wrap.

Leo read the text on the box twice and even opened it before the significance of the gift registered. “Is this- no, that thing was ancient…”

In the box was a whisky decanter the same shape as one that, according to Markus, Leo had accidentally broken on one of his impromptu visits with Carl. Now that Leo was sober he’d come to regret a lot of his past actions, and that was a moment he’d mentioned more than once. So it was a way to honour his father, let go of his past and enjoy the occasional drink with his boyfriend.

“It’s as close as we could find,” Gavin said as Leo took the glass globe out of its box, spinning it until he was looking at the Americas. “And it cost a pretty penny, so you better not drop this one!”

“I won’t,” Leo promised, before leaning over to kiss Gavin. All four androids pretended to groan or gag, despite the fact that Casey, Simon and Daniel had been up to far worse earlier in the morning. The walls were thick, nobody else needed to know.

The rest of the gifts passed with less chances of tears. Finn didn’t have many interests yet, but Casey had asked Elijah to put together a box of the now-tested android food, with promises for a nicer gift on his birthday. Gavin had a new pair of running shoes, Simon was given a nice record player for his growing collection of old vinyl records, and Daniel was already looking at his bank account to see if he could afford to use his ‘IOU one Disneyland ticket’ message that had been bundled with some DVDs.

And then there was just Casey’s gift left. Finn was the one to pass it to her, since apparently she couldn’t take her own gift from under the tree. She unwrapped it carefully, much to everyone else’s dismay, but the design on the paper was really nice and she wanted to keep a sheet of it. Whatever.

Her gift, unlike the others, was in a completely blank cardboard box, and the top was filled with styrofoam and bubble wrap. “I’m not about to be bitten by something, am I?” she joked as she emptied the box into their half-full garbage bag. Some of the styrofoam got there via Daniel’s face when he nodded in response, maybe, but according to Gavin after a brief argument, that wasn’t a crime.

When she finally uncovered her gift she gasped, pulling the grey object out as fast as she could. “How the hell did you find one of these?” she asked, turning it over and over in her hands as if her scans of the object would change. But they all came back with the same results: a Nintendo Entertainment System console, one of the few consoles that hadn’t passed through Daniel and Simon’s store in the past year. Or maybe it had, and they’d sneakily taken it off sale without telling her.

“I know so many people in this city,” Gavin answered with a vague hand gesture. Right, he had plenty of connections in plenty of places - Connor had complained about it before. But if those friends could get their hands on an NES, plus copies of Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, then she was definitely not in a position to echo the complaints.

Present time was over, so according to all the many rules that she’d picked up, she was free to plug it into the television and test the game. To her surprise, it worked perfectly. Most of the old consoles she came across had required some repair. But Gavin’s ‘friend’ must’ve taken care of that already, because she didn’t even need to blow into the Mario cartridge to make it work.

She sprawled on the floor in front of the television, her excitement making her oblivious to the hard floor beneath her. It wasn’t like her elbows could bruise anyway. Even the game cartridge loaded fine, looked fine, and hopefully it would be that way for the whole game. She tested a game once that crashed on the penultimate mission, and she was so mad that she threw it in the trash rather than trying to repair it.

A pillow bounced off her head as the game loaded. “Just one level!” she exclaimed, and luckily the first level was easy, because everyone she knew was impatient as hell. She did die once as she got used to the shape of the controller. But only once.

Simon and Daniel piled on top of her as the end-of-level fireworks exploded. She dropped the controller willingly, preferring to be holding their hands instead. “Merry Christmas,” she muttered against the hardwood (ha, she’d have to make up a pun with that later), and her boyfriends said the same when the skin pulled away from their hands.

Christmas 2038 hadn’t been much. But Christmas 2039 wasn’t even over, they still had a bigger family dinner on Boxing Day, and it was already much, much better.


End file.
